Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Reception, channel detection, network issues, CableCARD setup, etc.
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WildSquirrel
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Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

I was using a really cheap, 20 year old, antenna that worked fine for a long time. But as ATSC 3.0 is now rolling into my area, it seemed like a good idea to upgraded.

So now I have the Antennas Direct ClearStream with a Televes Amplifier. All my local channels come in clean and clear with the lowest quality being in the 80% range.

While this has been a massive improvement, there is one ATSC 3.0 channel that says it can not be displayed. The fireware for the device was updated to 20250506, I tried XBox & Chromecast. As it's a "PBS Kids" channel I thought it was odd enough to report and was wondering if the devs wanted logs, or any additional information in regard to this strange quirk.

As ATSC 3.0 is still... Going through struggles... This isn't really a huge concern as long as my locals maintain a 1.0 alternative.

oaks37
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by oaks37 »

What is the error message, if any? The other non-DRM 3.0 channels play okay, I take it? What is the station id / callsign (or channel number and location?)

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

The error, after waiting on a black screen for a bit, is:

Unable to play channel: No video data

But the other ATSC 3.0 PBS channels do play. The channel that doesn't has programming data.

In the Scan Channel menu all the PBS stations have 4 green bars. I was going to shrug it off, but, because ATSC 3.0 is still getting ironed out thought it might be worth reporting.

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signcarver
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by signcarver »

You should mention market and try another atsc3 device. In some cases it could be a transition to iptv which the app doesn't support and it can also be an issue with the station. I also suggest running a channel scan but note the dvr engine may not pick up such change for a couple of hours.

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

signcarver wrote: Thu May 15, 2025 8:49 am You should mention market and try another atsc3 device. In some cases it could be a transition to iptv which the app doesn't support and it can also be an issue with the station. I also suggest running a channel scan but note the dvr engine may not pick up such change for a couple of hours.
Multiple scans have been run since upgrading the antenna and trying to view the ATSC 3.0 stations. The issue is repeatable, and has been constant.

There is not another ATSC 3.0 device that can easily be connected to the antenna; I specifically ran the Coax to the Homelab and chose the HD Homerun because it worked over the network.

After realizing I didn't try to access the ATSC 3.0 channels with VLC I went to view them with that third party software; all of them will display with VLC, including the one that will not with the HDhomerun software, but none of them have any audio.

While strange that the 3.0 streams have no audio when streamed through VLC it would seem the whole transition away from 1.0 is going to be a mess.

If silicondust would like to know the specific market and channel information, they can reach out private

oaks37
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by oaks37 »

VLC doesn't support the AC4 audio codec used by ATSC 3.0, so silence is to be expected with those channels.

For kicks, in VLC, you can compare Tools -> Codec Information for a few ATSC 3.0 channels and see if there are any big differences with the Kids channel. Normally you'll just see the HVEC and resolution info but no audio info.

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

oaks37 wrote: Thu May 15, 2025 10:31 am VLC doesn't support the AC4 audio codec used by ATSC 3.0, so silence is to be expected with those channels.

For kicks, in VLC, you can compare Tools -> Codec Information for a few ATSC 3.0 channels and see if there are any big differences with the Kids channel. Normally you'll just see the HVEC and resolution info but no audio info.
Both Channels had the same CODEC information
Image

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: I guess Images are not enabled https://imgur.com/a/xa36hLV

jasonl
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by jasonl »

We would like to get some diagnostic data to see what is happening:
  1. In a web browser go to http://hdhomerun.local
    NOTE: That address will go do the first HDHomeRun device found on your network. If you have more than one HDHomeRun device, use the "device ID" printed on the bottom of the unit instead of "hdhomerun" in the address. For example, if your device ID was 104FFFFF then you would go to http://104fffff.local
  2. If it tells you that a firmware update is available, please install it
  3. Click "System Menu"
  4. Check the "Send diagnostic information" box (if this box is already checked, please un-check then re-check it)
  5. Go back one page
  6. Click "Channel Lineup"
  7. Click on "Detect Channels"
  8. After the scan finishes, open the HDHomeRun app
  9. Go into the app settings: the gear icon in the top right corner of the "Live/Recorded/Discover/Tasks" page
  10. Enable the option to "Send diagnostic information"
  11. Try to watch the problem channel
Reply back and provide us the device ID of your HDHomeRun and we will check the logs. You can find the device ID on a label on the bottom of the HDHomeRun itself.

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

jasonl wrote: Thu May 15, 2025 5:05 pm Reply back and provide us the device ID of your HDHomeRun and we will check the logs. You can find the device ID on a label on the bottom of the HDHomeRun itself.
Model: HDFX-4K
Device ID: [redacted]
Firmware: 20250506
Last edited by WildSquirrel on Fri Jun 13, 2025 4:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

Confirmed it also works with **** (No Audio)

Edit - "XBMC" is a dirty word on this forum?

jasonl
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by jasonl »

The audio is the problem, it's not finding something it wants in the stream within 10 seconds and is timing out as a result. We'd like to get a sample for our engineering team to review. Please save the following then upload the result to a file storage site like Google Drive or Dropbox, set the permissions so that anyone with the link can access it, and email the link and a link to this thread (so we know what it is) to support at silicondust dot com.

http://hdhomerun.local:5004/auto/ch27?d ... format=dbg

The K word is a bad word because there are people who can't differentiate between the very excellent open source project and the bad actors who sell hardware that happens to use that software for nefarious purposes. The people see that word on here and think we have something to do with the bad actors and no amount of explaining the difference will convince them otherwise.

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

jasonl wrote: Sun May 18, 2025 9:06 pm Please save the following then upload the result to a file storage site like Google Drive or Dropbox, set the permissions so that anyone with the link can access it, and email the link and a link to this thread (so we know what it is) to support at silicondust dot com.
Your request has been assigned ticket #[redacted]
jasonl wrote: Sun May 18, 2025 9:06 pm The K word is a bad word because there are people who can't differentiate between the very excellent open source project and the bad actors who sell hardware that happens to use that software for nefarious purposes.
That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the clarification :)

nickk
Silicondust
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by nickk »

Thanks for the capture - problem reproduced.

WildSquirrel
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Re: Unencrypted ATSC 3.0 Station will not display

Post by WildSquirrel »

Confirmation that the issue has been resolved as of Android App Version 20250611

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